Fall Mt’s #21 Chryssabella Craig had a monster night for the Wildcats tonight. Craig scored 11 points and led the fast break on this play on the way to a lop-sided win over Hillsboro-Deering 54-9. – Chris Shaban
LANGDON – Fall Mountain head coach Brian Pickering dressed only 10 players tonight as sickness and injuries have taken hold of his team but the depth was evident as every player had substantial minutes on Wednesday night while seven scored before the halftime buzzer as Fall Mountain easily handled Hillsboro-Deering, 54-9.
Pickering opted to start senior Amber Beliveau because, “She earned it with her hard work all year,” said Pickering after the game. Beliveau and her teammates couldn’t find a basket until nearly six minutes had ticked off the clock when Isabelle Lord gave the Wildcats a lead they would never relinquish. Chryssabella Craig went on a scoring rampage and poured in the next five points thanks in part to some nifty passing from Zoey Luopa who then drained her first hoop of the game and gave Fall Mountain the 9-3 lead after the first period.
Freshman sharpshooter Morgan Beauregard’s three pointer opened the floodgates for Fall Mountain to start the second quarter, while Craig and MaryBeth Groton followed with points and rebounds and when the dust had settled, Fall Mountain had outscored the visitors 15-2 in the quarter to head to the locker room leading 24-5 at the break.
“We have so many really good players on this team that anyone can step up and have a great game,” said Craig after the game and credited the bench with solid contributions from everyone tonight and added “I think we have a team full of stars.”
Zoe Utton dominated the opening minutes of the third quarter with not only 6 straight points but her open court awareness provided easy hoops and great passing lanes for her team. Pickering opted to give tonight’s starters some quality time on the bench in the final quarter that displayed a strong defensive effort as Fall Mountain outscored Hillsboro-Deering 11-0. Olivia Dunningham was shutting down any Hillsboro-Deering thought of scoring in the final eight minutes while Autumn Cummings and Beauregard finished the scoring on the night with back to back three pointers from Beauregard to close the books for a win.
“We started slow but we kept taking the open shot and finally they began to fall,” said Beliveau after the game and was quick to give credit to her teamates for tonight’s win. “I know we have so many really good players and tonight it was great to watch Olivia and Autum play great games tonight, they were awesome.”
Fall Moutain improves to 10-3 and will host one-win Winnisquam on Friday night.
Russ Pickering’s FM JV team defeated HD 57-28 as he had 9 players score tonight. They were led by Erin Brady who poured in 18 points and she was followed by Autumn Cummings and Kyla Elgabroadt who chipped in with 11 and 10 points respectively.
As your daily newspaper, we are committed to providing you with important local news coverage for Sullivan County and the surrounding areas.